Chapter 13: Beginning of the End

Ichigo rested quietly, burrowed into Kisuke's warm shoulder and breathing slowly. He smiled at the little feeling of heaviness in his belly that never seemed to leave him now. His mind refused to calm enough for sleep, so he laid in silence, just imagining his child's face and how the baby's voice would sound, how soft his or her skin would feel.

I remember when Karin and Yuzu were babies. They were really cute, and it felt good when Mom would ask me to help her take care of them. I can't wait for this baby to be here. I can't wait for it to all become real.

It feels close.

Since the wedding a few weeks ago, the feeling of heaviness has gotten more intense. The baby's reiatsu is powerful. I guess that's not surprising, considering the kid's parents. What's weird is that I've been feeling weaker. I wrote it off at first because I'm pregnant, and that can screw with my powers. But it's not just that. There's an all over feeling of exhaustion that is worse sometimes than other times. I know that hollow is still draining me. I don't sleep well, because I'm more vulnerable then. I can't tell when I'm sleeping if the hollow I see is real or just in my head. The hollow is slippery. We haven't been able to track it yet.

I think I remember her feeding on me and laughing at us for trying to stop her. I still don't know if that was real or just my fears getting the best of me. God, I don't know what's real anymore.

Ichigo forced the thought away and wriggled free of his sleeping husband. He left the bed and walked to the window, where he looked out at the bright moon, blinking sleepily and breathing slowly. His hand slipped down to rub his rounded belly affectionately.

Except for this.

I know you're real, and whatever happens, you're going to be okay. You're going to be born and whether or not I'm here, Kisuke will spoil the hell out of you. If I'm gone, he'll love you enough for both of us. I don't have to worry about you not having what you need or not being safe. Kisuke's gonna take good care of you. I'm gonna fight like hell to be here. Just…

…If I can't be…

He felt tears in his eyes and closed them tightly. A moment later, he startled at feeling a strong arm wrap around his enlarged waist. Kisuke's warm hand rubbed his rounded belly and the shopkeeper's soothing voice sounded in his ear.

"It's gonna be okay. Trust me. We're gonna figure this out and you, me and the baby will all be okay."

"S-sorry," Ichigo managed in a little sob, "I'm trying not to let it get to me, but I start thinking about the baby, and how I wanna be here to…"

He broke off and turned, burying his face in Kisuke's shoulder and crying soundlessly. He realized quickly that the cheek pressed against his was damp and the hands that rubbed his back were shaking.

"It's not that I'm scared of dying," Ichigo whispered, "I've been close so many times that I don't feel afraid anymore. What I am afraid of is missing out on the time we should have with our baby! I feel sick when I think of how worried I used to be about how it would be to have kids."

More tears leaked onto his face and he buried it deeper in Kisuke's shoulder, his breath catching and his body shuddering.

"I was such an idiot!" he sobbed.

"Ichigo, no, you weren't," Kisuke assured him, taking his husband's tearstained face in his hands and kissing him bracingly, "You're barely more than a kid, yourself. You're about to go to college. You weren't ready to become a parent. I never wanted you to feel rushed to do that. I'm sorry I put pressure on you."

"You didn't," Ichigo said, shaking his head, "I put pressure on myself. I kept looking at the stuff I thought was scary. But it's not half as scary as this hollow that's slowly sucking the life outta me!"

"Baby, I won't let you die," Kisuke whispered, running his fingers through the longer strands of ginger hair and kissing the side of Ichigo's neck, "I've kept you alive so many times when you should've been gone. I'm not gonna fail you now."

"I know you won't," Ichigo answered shakily, "I'm just…"

"You're scared," Kisuke said, rubbing his back gently, "It's okay for you to be scared. I'm scared too. I'm gonna find an answer. I'm not gonna let you go. But I'll be scared until I figure out the way to do that."

"I know you will. I trust you Kisuke. I trust you with everything."

"I won't disappoint you."

The shopkeeper took a trembling breath.

"We should take a little walk or something. It's not good for you to be inside all day."

"I know," Ichigo answered, pulling free of him and heading for the dressing area.

He looked at the collection of his clothes in the closet and couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't think I have anything left that fits," he chuckled, wiping his eyes, "I'm so big now."

"You look beautiful," Kisuke said, nudging by him and digging deep into his own section of the closet, "And I think this might work for you."

Ichigo's eyes widened as he spotted the handsome green yukata with an eye catching golden leaf pattern. The belly area had been cut so it would flatter the pronounced baby bump.

"I don't believe it!" Ichigo managed in a choked voice, "It's really, really amazing! How did you do this?"

"Well, Byakuya was by a few days ago and I was telling him how hardly anything fit you. I asked him for a recommendation and the next day, he had this sent. It was designed just for you by his own tailors."

"Oh my god! I've never seen anything so beautiful," Ichigo said, sniffing as he took the yukata and began to dress.

"I can't wait to see it on you," Kisuke sighed, "C'mere, let's check it out."

"It's soft," Ichigo said approvingly, watching in the mirror as Kisuke wrapped the finely crafted garment around him and tied it at the waist.

He paused to smooth the soft material around Ichigo's slender throat and across his muscular breast, then glanced down and patted the younger man's baby bump gently.

"It looks really good," Ichigo sighed, wrapping his hand lovingly around the baby bump and caressing the area slowly.

"It looks amazing," Kisuke agreed, "Do you feel like going out? We could have breakfast somewhere. Maybe that new restaurant, down by the park? I've heard the food's good and the view is even better."

Ichigo smiled at the idea, but a little swirl of dizziness chilled his interest swiftly.

"Ah, I don't know," he said uncertainly.

"What's wrong?" Kisuke asked, looking concerned, "You feeling off? Ichigo, are you all right?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Ichigo lied, "I feel okay. We can go if you want to."

Kisuke crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed.

"We're not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on," he insisted, "Look, I know you're trying not to worry me. I get that you're battling something here, and you're trying to hide just how bad you feel. But you need to be honest with you. Ichigo, please tell me what's going on. I can't help you if you hold out on me. You don't need to do that. Whatever's going on, whatever it is, we need to take it on together."

Ichigo hesitated, looking up into his husband's concerned eyes and hating himself for adding to the man's worries.

"Okay," he said finally, "Look, I didn't say anything, not because I was hiding it from you, but because I don't know if what I'm feeling is real or if it's just my fears."

"But…?" Kisuke prompted him, slipping a warm hand into his.

"But," Ichigo said, swallowing hard, "it's like with every day that I get closer to having our baby, I feel a little weaker."

Kisuke squeezed his hand encouragingly.

"And you feel like this weakness isn't the same as the feeling that comes from the interference with your powers that we talked about?"

"Yeah," Ichigo confessed, feeling a jolt of surprise at the sense of relief it gave him to finally share his worries with his husband, "this isn't me not having powers. This is me feeling lightheaded and my vision wavering. Sometimes I feel a sensation almost like I'm passing out, but then, I catch myself and come awake again. It's weird. Like I said, I don't know if it's really that I'm getting weaker or if it's just because the pregnancy is wearing on my body and I'm just tired."

"C'mon and let me look you over again," Kisuke offered.

"You check me all of the time," Ichigo complained, blushing, "It's probably nothing. You would have spotted it if…"

"Maybe," his husband said, frowning, "or maybe it's kinda like I've been looking at the wrong thing."

He tugged gently on Ichigo's arm, coaxing him out of their bedroom, then slipped an arm around him, stealing kisses every few steps as they walked down the hallway.

"You know how much I love you, right?" Kisuke chuckled.

"You've told me a few times," Ichigo laughed, his heart lightening slightly at the attempt at humor, "I love you too, Kisuke. Sorry about this…"

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," the shopkeeper said, holding the lab door open for him as he passed through, "Just give me a second to set a few things up, okay hon?"

"Sure," Ichigo answered, climbing onto the examination table and sitting quietly on the edge as he watched Kisuke enter information into his computer, then set a number of dials on a few of the nearby monitors. He picked up a small scanner and moved in close, helping Ichigo to lie down on his back.

"Ugh, my back kinda aches when I lie this way."

"Yeah, sorry. I'll help you roll onto your side in a minute. I need to check the baby first."

Ichigo waited patiently, holding still despite the nagging ache in his back. Kisuke ran the scanner slowly over the younger man's baby bump, then smiled down at him and gently eased Ichigo onto his side. He smiled sympathetically at the groan of relief his husband gave upon the shift in position.

"Sorry," he apologized again, "Just relax. This won't take long."

Kisuke returned to the computer and typed on the keyboard for several minutes. Ichigo's mind began to wander and the little shaft of fear that had nagged him before returned.

I wonder if he's going to find something. I'm scared about what'll happen if he does, but I'm also scared that he won't find anything, but this feeling will just go on. My gut tells me something's happening.

He blinked slowly, focusing on the space in front of him as Kisuke moved closer and completed a short physical examination, then carefully scanned his body from head to toe. He drew measures of blood and reiatsu and fed them into another machine, before returning to Ichigo's side and slipping a hand into his.

"It's okay, love. You're gonna be fine. Everything looks stable so far," Kisuke assured him.

He moved away again as the nearby machine beeped to announce the completion of the blood and reiatsu tests. Kisuke examined the results closely, a flicker of fear forming in his chest.

"Something's wrong," Ichigo said softly, "It's okay. I already know. I've been feeling it for awhile."

Kisuke bit his lip gently and ran a second test on the blood and reiatsu samples. He waited for the machine to beep, announcing the completion of the test, then read the results again. Ichigo waited breathlessly, his heart sinking at the careful expression Kisuke wore as he met the younger man's eyes again.

"You're right," he said in an eerily calm voice, "It's like a…a strange connection between you and the baby. The baby is growing stronger, but you're getting weaker."

He paused, considering silently for a moment.

"Have you felt the hollow feeding lately?" he asked warily.

"No, not feeding," Ichigo admitted, shivering as Kisuke helped him to sit up, "I feel her eyes watching me. I don't know. It could be just because I know she's out there and we haven't been able to follow her when she feeds…"

"No," Kisuke assured him, "we already know she established a connection between you. It's entirely possible that she is watching you and that she stopped feeding because the baby is about to be born."

"But…"

"This leaves me with the feeling that she is planning something for when the baby is born."

"But why would she do that?" Ichigo pleaded softly, "If the hollow wants to devour my reiatsu and kill me, why let me have the baby first? Why didn't she just kill me in the first place?"

Kisuke went silent again, considering all of the scattered pieces of information they had gathered. His mind turned over the fragments, considering carefully, and he frowned and shook his head.

"You know, come to think of it, this has the feel of some screwed up kinda contract," he said in a disturbed sounding voice.

"A contract?" Ichigo mused, "I didn't make any contract! Why the hell would I ever agree to let some hollow suck the life outta me? I mean, I did wanna have the baby, but I don't wanna die to have the kid! I never agreed to that."

"It's not that kind of contract," Kisuke said, rubbing his chin and closing his eyes in concentration, "I've heard of a few rare cases where a hollow will take the life of a victim, but for some reason, they offer some kind of exchange for the life they take. I don't know. Maybe they think of it as some kind of compensation for the killing. I'm not sure because I'd only come across something like that in a very small reference years ago."

Kisuke moved back to the computer and tapped furiously at the keyboard, making the screen flash fitfully as he searched. He shook his head and swore, then continued for several minutes longer before stopping and staring at the screen in front of him.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked anxiously, "Kisuke…?"

Kisuke's fingers tapped more slowly on the keyboard, then froze again.

"That's it. It's got to be."

"What's it? What did you find?" Ichigo asked, moving to join him.

"Here," the shopkeeper said, pointing at the screen, "See, here's a case where a hollow was said to have been the spirit of a dead man who had strong beliefs in some kind of justice or balance in everything. He still devoured souls, but he offered them something in exchange. Now, he didn't let them choose, but he could feel a vibration in his mask when the person he devoured had a strong desire or wish as they were dying."

"But I wasn't dying," Ichigo said, frowning.

"Oh, I assure you, this whole thing has been about you dying, Ichigo," Kisuke said in a low, angry voice, "It's about you dying in a slow, horrible way, through a bunch of feedings and this granting of something the hollow must have perceived that you wanted."

Ichigo looked at Kisuke curiously as an anguished look rose on his face.

"Kisuke?"

The shopkeeper gave him a crestfallen look.

"You really did want this baby, didn't you?" he asked in a wounded voice, "You haven't just been accepting. When you weren't even pregnant yet and she took you and she was feeding on you the first time, she sensed what crossed your mind when you thought you were going to die."

Ichigo stared back at him wordlessly.

"You regretted not leaving me with some part of you," Kisuke continued, closing his eyes against the burning sensation, "That's why you were able to get pregnant. That's the contract she made with you in exchange for taking your life. I don't believe this…"

"It's okay, Kisuke."

"No, it's not okay!" his husband snapped, "None of this is okay and we're not just sitting here and letting that hollow take you away from your family! We're fighting this every step of the way."

"But how?" Ichigo asked worriedly, "Kisuke, we can't track her. We've tried and we…"

"Do you remember the first time you felt that feeling of being drained? If you look back, do you remember feeling that sensation and thinking that you were dying?"

Ichigo's head bowed as he considered. He thought carefully.

"You said that I must have gotten pregnant after when this hollow made the contract with me," he mused, "And I started to have symptoms after we came back from helping Renji with his mission."

"The mission with Renji," Kisuke repeated, "And something happened to you when you fell out of the sky. I thought you were just depleted because of the damage when you came crashing down, but you did say that…"

"Something happened, but I couldn't remember!" Ichigo exclaimed, "It all goes back to that."

"You were missing for long enough that if the hollow was responsible, she could have drained you and initiated this contract, setting the timer for when you have the baby."

Kisuke made a sound of realization and studied the readouts from the computer again. His hand slammed down on the desk and he swore softly.

"What is it? What did you find?" Ichigo demanded, grabbing his arm, "Kisuke, tell me what's happening?"

Kisuke took a steadying breath.

"Ichigo," he said in a low, shaking voice, "you're not weakening. That's not what this is. Your reiatsu isn't being sucked away. Little by little, as the baby's reiatsu matures…the contract is being completed."

"I don't understand. What are you saying?" Ichigo pleaded desperately.

"What I'm saying is that the baby completes the contract, and when that happens…I think she's going to pull you away completely!"